Right Now, I Think America Needs Mushroom Soup and Fruit Salad

The Wheel of the Year has turned and we're now well into Autumn -- just a few days out from Samhein. We recently got flu shots at my workplace and colds are already going around my DC. Health Care -- who gets it, what it entails, how to register for it, how to fund it, how to provide it -- is front and center (sadly, in a rather unhealthy way) in our body politic.

I belonged, for a number of years, to a Circle that had a lovely tradition at about this time of year of doing a magic working to increase our own immunity. A day or two before the working, each of us would -- with intent -- shop for and prepare a dish meant to strengthen immunity. One woman usually made a mushroom soup (http://www.prevention.com/food/cook/andrew-weil-true-food-kitchen-and-healing-recipes?page=2) as mushrooms are great for boosting immunity (see here: http://blog.doctoroz.com/oz-experts/3-mushrooms-and-their-big-immunity-benefits). I would make a fruit salad with chopped up blood and Valencia, oranges, ruby red grapefruits, kiwi fruits, dragon fruits (because, come on, of course!), and raspberries. Another woman once made a delicious beet dish (http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/beets-immune-system-9259.html). You get the idea. We would gather, do a bit of magic to charge the food, and then consume it in sacred space in order to strengthen our immunity.

You might want to adapt this idea to perform a magic working to bring greater health not only to yourself, your family, and our populace, but also to our body politic (which, Goddess knows, certainly seems to have succumbed to various parasites).

Determine your intent and write it down. Immunity for yourself and your family? Improved heath care for everyone? A health-care system that is, itself, more healthy? Protection for our healers? Healing for the planet? Think it through and be clear about your intent.

Cast a circle and call the Goddesses/Gods. (I like Hygeia for health issues, but I'd also call Columbia for issues related to politics and national health care. Mars for energy? Brigid, Grannus, Sekhmet, Chrion, Beiwe (excellent for Winter!)? There are so many possibilities!)

Add energy (warmth from your stove, ginger for heat, reiki from your hands) to the food.

Set the table, light a candle, and consume the food, focusing on your intent. As above, so below. As within, so without. As you say, so mote it be. (If possible, you might want to end with a bath full of healthy herbs: rosemary, lavender, sage, mint, thyme. Steam and herbs are generally very good for respiratoryhealth.)

Before thanking the Goddesses/Gods, make one commitment to either your own health and/or to our national health. Will you get more sleep, eat more greens, volunteer one day a month at a free clinic, write one letter to a government official about the health of the planet, promise to practice safe sex? Write it down and tuck the slip of paper into your calendar at the Spring Equinox.